Application A1118 – food derived from corn line MON87419 made by Monsanto Australia Pty Ltd, genetically engineered to be tolerant to the herbicides dicamba and glufosinate ammonium.

The Trustees and Members of PSGR urge Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to meet their duty of care and reject this application.

Many scientific and medical fraternities worldwide are deeply concerned about feeding human and animal populations foods containing novel DNA sequences not found in nature. On an evolutionary time scale, the introduction of transgenic material into the food chain has not allowed for genetic changes to evolve for the human or animal systems to cope with these previously unknown transgenes.

Local Government and Environment Select CommitteeSelect Committee ServicesParliament BuildingsWELLINGTON 6160

This submission is to the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament on 26 November 2015, and specifically with reference to the Clause 105 new section 360D Regulations that permit or prohibit certain rules – and particularly to clause 1(b):

(1) The Governor-General may, by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations (b) to prohibit a local authority from making specified rules or specified types of rules:

Submission on the International Treaty examination of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

It is the general public of New Zealand who will be most impacted by the TPPA, and it has a particular impact on the Treaty of Waitangi and Maori rights and interests.

Public concerns have tended to be dismissed as unimportant and uninformed. One can justifiably argue that New Zealanders need public consultation to become informed. It is also disingenuous to suggest government has had or intends to have "extensive public consultations" on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) when New Zealanders have petitioned for and been denied consultation since negotiations began in 2010.

As elected representatives we acknowledge your responsibility and concerns for land use, limiting the consequences of releasing genetically engineered organisms into your environment, and preserving the reputation and integrity of regional economies for exporting clean, safe, GE-free products that New Zealand's overseas markets want from us.

PSGR has addressed informative letters to all Councillors in New Zealand regularly since 2003.Today, we learned that one Councillor admitted not knowing what genetically engineered organisms are.That Councillor is also unaware of the tremendous efforts over a decade made by the Northland Councils, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, and Auckland Council to protect ratepayers from the risks of releasing these genetically engineered organisms into the environment, or that Hawkes Bay is working towards the same goal and other Councils acknowledge their importance.